One by one, they died. When a new shipment of 10 wild sloths arrived from Peru in February 2025, two were dead on arrival and the rest were \u201cemaciated.\u201d None survived, according to the state\u2019s incident report, written in August and detailing all 31 fatalities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The company kept importing more sloths. The deaths kept mounting, later state government necropsy reports indicate. One of those records describes a bloated nine-month-old baby, named Kiwi by Sloth World, weighing less than 3 pounds.<\/p>\n
![\"On](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-1024x683.jpg\"\/)
On Aug. 7, 2025, inspectors with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission gave Sloth World a verbal warning for housing sloths in cages that were too small. Credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-1-1024x683.jpg\"\/)
A row of cages inside Sloth World\u2019s off-site warehouse on Aug. 7, 2025. More than 31 sloths have died in Sloth World\u2019s care. Credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission<\/p>\n
Sloth World learned that viruses, including a \u201cnovel two-toed sloth gammaherpesvirus,\u201d were rippling through the warehouse, according to the necropsy reports and internal company emails reviewed by Inside Climate News. \u201cLittle is known\u201d about the virus\u2019 treatment, one necropsy record said, referring to the gammaherpesvirus. That necropsy, performed on a sloth named Selma, said she had experienced \u201crecent transportation stress.\u201d Another necropsy report noted the \u201crapid on set of multiple deaths at this facility.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Those reports indicate that \u201csystemic stress\u201d acted as a \u201cdefinitive catalyst\u201d for the deaths, according to a review of the reports by Ana Mar\u00eda Villada Rosales, a member of the Council of Scientific Authority in Costa Rica and head veterinarian and conservation medicine research manager at The Sloth Institute in Costa Rica, an organization critical of Sloth World.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe intense physiological strain of international transit, diet change, and wild capture most likely suppressed their immune systems,\u201d Villada Rosales said in a written statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Asked about the situation, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said in a written statement that the agency is aware of the viral spread and is \u201cworking with Sloth World to help investigate and diagnose the ongoing issues impacting the facility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benjamin Agresta, owner of Sloth World, said his organization wants to teach people about sloths and intends to study them, work with researchers and provide grant money to conservation organizations. Speaking by phone, he declined to disclose what conservation organizations Sloth World is working with, or intends to work with. He refused to answer other questions, referring Inside Climate News to his media team, which did not respond to multiple requests for comment nor to a list of questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two sloth conservation and rescue organizations have sharply criticized<\/a> Sloth World\u2019s sourcing of animals from the wild, noting that sloths are notoriously difficult to keep alive in captivity. The animals are highly sensitive to stress, largely solitary with an aversion to humans and dependent on specialized diets.\u00a0<\/p>\n Agresta said such organizations want to abolish animal conservation and \u201care the enemy.\u201d Asked about the state records indicating that sloths have died, he called that \u201ccompletely fiction.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Sloth World has continued importing wild sloths through a related business, Sanctuary World Imports, acquiring at least 38 more wild sloths in addition to the initial 31 that died, according to government permit records.\u00a0<\/p>\n Conditions at the warehouse have improved, three people with knowledge of the facility said. That includes temperature and humidity controls\u2014also noted in the state\u2019s incident report\u2014and a tropical plant garden.\u00a0<\/p>\n Even so, the viruses coursed through the new population despite Sloth World\u2019s attempts to quarantine animals and disinfect their living space, according to the necropsy reports and people with firsthand knowledge of the situation who spoke confidentially for fear of retaliation. It\u2019s unclear how many of the company\u2019s 69 sloths are still alive.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sloth World\u2019s grand opening has repeatedly been pushed back.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe are still hard at work behind the scenes getting everything ready for our sloths and guests,\u201d the business wrote in response to a Google review in late March. The company\u2019s website says visitors will soon be able to view about 40 sloths in a \u201crainforest-inspired indoor habitat.\u201d So far, all the photos and videos of the attraction\u2019s interior appear to be digital mockups.<\/p>\n Roughly six months after the initial 31 sloth deaths at the facility, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission gave the company\u2019s import business a verbal warning for housing some of the animals in cages too small for them without tracking how long they had been confined. The agency told Inside Climate News this week that Sloth World didn\u2019t violate any state regulations and \u201cthere are currently no active investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n A Global Trade<\/p>\n For wildlife experts, the situation raises broader concerns about the global trade in sloths, animals increasingly imported for tourism and exotic pet attractions with little oversight once they arrive in the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n They say Sloth World reflects an industry pattern\u2014commercial companies framing wildlife encounters as conservation or rescue operations while relying on a steady supply of animals taken from the wild. Under current law, those animals are largely treated as property that can be captured, sold and imported if basic permitting requirements are met with the exporting countries and U.S. officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n The result, experts and advocacy groups say, underscores how gaps in regulation allow operators to import vulnerable, sentient species, confine them and promote the ventures as conservation success stories even as animals suffer, fall ill or die.<\/p>\n On its website, Sloth World markets itself as the planet\u2019s only \u201cSlotharium,\u201d where \u201csloths live their slowest, happiest lives.\u201d Part of each ticket, the site says, will fund research and conservation efforts that benefit sloths globally.\u00a0<\/p>\n For Rebecca Cliffe, founder of the Sloth Conservation Foundation and critic of Sloth World, those claims don\u2019t legitimize removing animals from the wild.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no justification in 2026 for acquiring wild sloths for exhibition,\u201d Cliffe said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Part of the reason sloths are exceptionally poorly suited to captivity, she added, is that they evolved over millions of years as biological introverts. Unlike most mammals, they lack a strong fight-or-flight response and instead rely on camouflage to survive. When handled by strangers or placed in noisy, high-traffic environments, they don\u2019t scream or struggle. Instead, Cliffe said, they internalize the stress\u2014sometimes curling into a ball and closing their eyes. Their bodies flood with cortisol, triggering a cascade of physiological stress that can end in organ failure.<\/p>\n In the world of exotic attractions and social media, the stillness that makes them look \u201ccute\u201d is often the mask of an animal experiencing extreme stress, she said.<\/p>\n The sheer scale of Sloth World\u2019s operation is cause for concern, said Sam Trull, executive director of The Sloth Institute. She described the number of animals Sloth World removes from the wild as \u201cmindblowing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Trull\u2019s organization works to rehabilitate injured sloths and those rescued from the tourism and pet trade, with the goal of returning them to the wild. That process can take months and requires intensive care and expertise because sloths are so sensitive to stress, diet and environmental changes. Trull considers Sloth World\u2019s marketing a strategic deception.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are pretending it\u2019s conservation,\u201d Trull said. \u201cThey\u2019re trying to really greenwash what they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Part of that conservation branding appears on Sloth World\u2019s website, where the company lists the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission as its \u201cAnimal Welfare Partners\u201d\u2014even though both agencies are government regulators.<\/p>\n In a written statement, the USDA said it is not a Sloth World partner, adding that the agency \u201cis responsible for licensing facilities under the Animal Welfare Act and does not designate facilities as \u2018animal welfare partners.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The agency said on March 19 that Sloth World is not licensed with the USDA, which is required if the company starts displaying animals to the public. On April 2, the agency confirmed that Sloth World\u2019s related import business also did not have a USDA license.<\/p>\n Sloth World\u2019s website additionally says it collaborates with the University of Florida to \u201csupport publishable studies.\u201d In a written statement, the university said it \u201cdoes not have an official or legal partnership with Sloth World, nor have we found any relevant documents indicating the participation in sloth-related research.\u201d<\/p>\n Peter Bandre, who was vice president of Sloth World until his recent departure, has built a career importing and selling exotic animals as pets, with sloths as a particular specialty.<\/p>\n Government records show Bandre\u2019s company, Incredible Pets, brought at least 80 sloths into the United States between 2011 and 2021, the year Bandre sold the business. That made the company one of the larger documented importers during that decade. He declined to comment for this story, except to defend the diet protocol he designed for the sloths, which he said was based on extensive research and individually tailored to each animal.<\/p>\n Agresta, meanwhile, owns<\/a> or owned a sloth himself. Sloth World did not respond to questions about whether that sloth is still alive.\u00a0<\/p>\n Before Bandre\u2019s departure, in emails to the Sloth Conservation Foundation reviewed by Inside Climate News, he said Sloth World\u2019s collection included both two-fingered and three-fingered sloths. Three-fingered sloths rarely survive in captivity.<\/p>\n This story is funded by readers like you.<\/p>\n Our nonprofit newsroom provides award-winning climate coverage free of charge and advertising. We rely on donations from readers like you to keep going. Please donate now to support our work.<\/p>\n Donate Now<\/a> <\/p>\n Bandre sought to reassure conservationists that the planned exhibit would include \u201cretreat zones\u201d where animals could move away from visitors.<\/p>\n \u201cOur operations are built on the principle of Ethical Observation,\u201d Bandre wrote in a Jan. 13 email. \u201cUnlike traditional animal encounters, we strictly enforce a No-Touch Policy.\u201d<\/p>\n Bandre\u2019s pet-trade business sold sloths to animal encounter businesses and marketed the animals online.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to [be a] baby sloth Christmas,\u201d Incredible Pets wrote in a Facebook post in 2017.<\/p>\n \u201cI need a baby sloth for Christmas!\u201d one user replied.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you want one? We can get you one,\u201d the company responded.<\/p>\n \u201cSending a PM,\u201d the user wrote back.<\/p>\n A \u201cGoldilocks\u201d Species<\/p>\n As slow as sloths are, their digestion is even slower\u2014taking up to 30 days to process a single leaf. And their diets are unforgivingly specific. In the wild, they feed on a small set of rainforest leaves. Outside their native forests, scientists say, replicating that diet is exceptionally difficult.<\/p>\n At her rescue center in Costa Rica, Trull said her staff spends hours each day collecting wild leaves. If sloths don\u2019t recognize a leaf\u2014or simply don\u2019t like it\u2014they will often starve rather than eat, she said.<\/p>\n At Sloth World, however, the animals were fed conventional U.S. produce such as kale and squash, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission report.\u00a0<\/p>\n Accredited zoos<\/a> with specialized veterinary teams feed their sloths similar diets. But the animals frequently suffer<\/a> from chronic<\/a> health problems\u2014such as kidney failure and malnutrition\u2014likely linked to diet and stress, said Cliffe, the sloth scientist.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bandre defended Sloth World\u2019s feeding protocols, saying food was a central focus of care. He said his team developed a varied diet with more than 20 types of plants, along with supplemental produce. He said the facility cultivated dozens of plant species on-site, including tropical almond trees.<\/p>\n Wildlife experts say the sloths\u2019 fragile digestive systems are severely strained by the taxing journey to facilities like Sloth World. The transition involves traumatic capture, prolonged confinement in cargo holds and major environmental changes such as rapid shifts in altitude.<\/p>\n Each stage subjects the animals to extreme stress, leaving them vulnerable.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re the definition of a Goldilocks species,\u201d Trull said. \u201cEverything has to be exactly right.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tAbout This Story<\/p>\n Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That\u2019s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not all. We also share our news for free with scores of other media organizations around the country. Many of them can\u2019t afford to do environmental journalism of their own. We\u2019ve built bureaus from coast to coast to report local stories, collaborate with local newsrooms and co-publish articles so that this vital work is shared as widely as possible.<\/p>\n Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.<\/p>\n Donations from readers like you fund every aspect of what we do. If you don\u2019t already, will you support our ongoing work, our reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet, and help us reach even more readers in more places? <\/p>\n Please take a moment to make a tax-deductible donation. Every one of them makes a difference.<\/p>\n Thank you,<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t![\"Veterinarians](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Eric-exam-1024x683.jpg\"\/)
Veterinarians with The Sloth Institute examine a sloth with a broken arm on Aug. 30, 2019. Credit: Sam Trull<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/sloth-selfie-mangrove-tour2-1024x683.jpg\"\/)
A tourist in Quepos, Costa Rica, photographs a three-fingered sloth used in the tourism trade on Jan. 23, 2018. Credit: Sam Trull<\/p>\n![\"Pedro](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/grogu-drinking-milk4.jpg\"\/)
Pedro Montero, a Costa Rican biologist and assistant director of The Sloth Institute, feeds an orphaned baby sloth on Feb. 25. Credit: Sam Trull<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Katie-Surma-headshot-300x300.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Kiley-Price-300x300.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n